Friday, 27 July 2007

I am sorry to say that the Department of Foreign Affairs has madechanges to the legislation in Australia regarding TS girls being ableto get an interim passport with their female gender on it.

Previously girls in Oz used to be able to get an interim femalepassport, provided that they could show proof that they hadtransitioned, and were travelling overseas for the purpose of SRS.

Now they will have to travel passports with 'male' on them, untilafter the surgery, when they can then apply to change their birthcertificate. This is such a backward step and is going to cause a lotof distress and increase the danger of travel for T girls.Especially in the current climate of suspicion and paranoia aroundterrorist threat.

Just thought everyone should know.

And from another:

I was the Girl M...... was talking about, who turned up to thePassport Office to be confronted with this distressing new reality.It seems this change had been snuck in under the radar. I was soshocked. It made their request of me bringing a letter from mypresiding doctor, stating I was going for Reassignment surgery, acomplete waste of time. This is really a SAFETY Issue. I rang up tocomplain & the people higher up in the passport office had not evenheard of this change. All I can say, is that we haven't heard the endof this backward stupid & dangerous amendment.

Another shock I had was the man dealing with my application keptcalling me "sir". I was dressed in a bright fuscia business skirtsuit. There was no doubt I was presenting as a professional, welldressed Female. He said "sir" three times before I twigged. Icorrected him by saying.."Ma'am"

He looked at me in the eye & replied "sorry sir, it says on thisform (My new altered birth certificate) that you are Male......Sir"I scowled back "As a common courtesy, Call me Ma'am".

Of course, I also put in a complaint against him. It was the firsttime I had ever been vilified by anyone in over two years of livingfull time & here I was getting it from a government department. As aco-worker said when I told him the story... "Why am I not surprised"

And another:

Hi Zoe and everyone,

Yes, some moves are afoot at present through SAGE to address this.Tracie is going to ask some internationally recognised people to make some representations and argue the case.

The legislation that was snuck through, is a cynical and reprehensible attempt by the current conservative government to repeal an important right as an underhanded and ill-thought out 'quickie" response to the upcoming challenge being mounted by M....... and myself, to the decision of DFAT to deny a full female passport to myself after SRS, for the reason of an existing legal 'heterosexual' marriage.

Our case is strong, and they are peeved, but there is no excuse for this totally unnessary repeal of an existing right. It flies in the face of the UN guidelines for fair treatmant of gender-variant people and places us in clear danger when forced to travel with inappropriate documentation.

This case will be familiar to those with long memories, it is almost 2 years since we went to Phuket and applied to have my documentation amended.The hearing is on 12th September. We'll let you know how it goes.....

This is petty. It always was a possibility that we'd face if we made a fuss though. That rights existing for decades, rights actually enshrined in legislation, could effectively be withdrawn by bureaucratic or ministerial fiat to punish us for being uppity, and not knowing our place. Now unless the Australian Passport Regulations 2005 (as amended to July 18 2007) have been changed by Parliament, it's also against the law. But that doesn't seem to matter to them, as I've found out in the past.

If it wasn't for the fact that the ALP has been even less supportive, offering pious platitudes while the rusted-on Catholic Socialists quietly block any attempt at helping TS and other IS people, I'd change my vote.

As it is, I'm considering my options. I think I'll apply for a passport again.... write a few letters to newspapers... see if I can get the public informed of what has happened. Make a fuss. But not today. I'm too angry to act with full rationality, and this one is too important to act on without cool, calculating intelligence.

About Me

Actually, I am a Rocket Scientist.
Also hormonally odd (my blood has 46xy chromosomes anyway) and for most of my life, I looked male, and lived as one, trying to be the best Man a Gal could be. Anyway, in May 2005 that started changing naturally for reasons still unclear, and I'm now Zoe, not Alan : happier and more relaxed not to have to pretend any more.
UPDATE - reason now identified as the 3BHSD form of CAH.

Reviews

This blog, written by a rocket scientist, is a fascinating collection of information, both personal and scientific, regarding intersex, transsexualism and related psychosocial and psychosexual issues....It is erudite and heartfelt. Just read the posts about the passport issue. You won't know whether to laugh, weep or crawl into a ball and rock gently in a corner - an amazing person.- David---The reason I so appreciate bright, perceptive people - as opposed to ideologues whose intelligence does little to illuminate - is that they manage to both instruct and learn with a certain grace. Among such rarities in the transblogosphere is Zoe, whose direct speech and clear humanity always make her worth reading, even if one doesn’t always agree with her every conclusion.- Val---The following is a request for permission to archive your A.E.Brain blog site which we have wanted to do for several years...The Library has traditionally collected items in print, but it is also committed to preserving electronic publications of lasting cultural value....Since (1996) we have been identifying online publications and archiving those that we consider have national significance....We would like to include A.E.Brain blog site in the PANDORA Archive...-Australian National Library